Finished TMA recently, my thoughts...

Jah on 28/7/2007 at 00:28

Quote Posted by Rekrul

However, I'm a little paranoid that the game might bring one of them back to life. In the Bank mission, there's a room with two cameras and two of the little bots who seem to be talking. I turned out the lights, then used water arrows to disable both (this was before I discovered that you could destroy disabled bots). A little while later, I heard a bot talking and figured that another one was wandering around. I followed the sound back to that room and one of the bots I'd disabled was active again. I've heard that the Dark Engine sometimes will stand zombies back up after you reload a save and I'd almost certainly used Quickload by then, so maybe it forgot the state of that bot. So when I disable a combat bot, I like to smash them just so there's no chance of the game re-activating them. Also, it's pretty satisfying to wreck them. :)

Hmm. I don't think I've ever seen any disabled bots come back to life, thank goodness. I usually don't bother with the little bots, though - they're normally blind and only react to sound, so they're usually easy enough to avoid. I do remember that after destroying all the combat bots in Bay D, some of the little bots kept running around the bay with their eyes open, constantly going "Please be warned: A wretched intruder", making me wish I could destroy them just to get them to shut up, but apparently they're programmed not to leave the bay area, and with all the combat bots destroyed, there was no one left for them to alert.

A couple of times, I remember disabling a bot in front of a doorway so that it was blocking my way. At least once, I think I just kept jumping over it, as it wasn't in the middle of the doorway - it never occurred to me that you could destroy the wreck afterwards.

Quote Posted by Rekrul

As for other enemies seeing the pieces; When you smash a bot, you're left with a boiler you can pick up and a lot of little pieces that you can't pick up, but which you can push somewhat. Over time, all those little pieces vanish, leaving only the boiler. Just like how blood eventually vanishes over time. I don't know what rationale you could come up with for the parts disappearing though. So I suppose if you smash a bot, then hide the boiler and wait for the parts to vanish, there's no evidence that you were there. Of course with all the noise you make breaking it apart, any enemies nearby have probably already heard you.

So the boiler is the "corpse" the bots leave behind, and the other parts are "blood"? Heh, interesting. I don't really see any rationale for the disappearing parts, either, so it sounds like some kind of engine quirk. I can't remember how long it takes for blood to disappear, but it's probably safe to say that if nobody discovers the blood/bot parts before they disappear, they would not have been discovered anyway.

Quote Posted by Rekrul

I've had that happen also, where it takes two mines to knock out a bot. Other times I've put a mine in front of a bot compartment, let the camera see me and the mine disables two bots. In Soulforge, there's a long hallway that leads to a large, dark room with a walkway up above. Just inside the door to the left is a bot-garage (unlike most, it's actually a structure inside the room) with two combat bots and a spider bot inside. I placed one mine, set off the alarm and the mine destroyed them both, although the spider bot survived to chase me. If you use my save, it's the area where the annoying mech cherub hangs out. You'll see two combat bot boilers inside. The boiler for the spider bot is in the "tank" room where I crushed it with the elevator. :)

I haven't had time to look at the save yet - been busy with T2X for the last few days. :) I'm now at the beginning of the penultimate mission, however, so after that, I can get back to the original T2.

Rekrul on 28/7/2007 at 02:47

Quote Posted by Jah

I usually destroy them just so that I don't have to listen to them. "All should hear the words, the words of Karras!"

Quote Posted by Jah

A couple of times, I remember disabling a bot in front of a doorway so that it was blocking my way. At least once, I think I just kept jumping over it, as it wasn't in the middle of the doorway - it never occurred to me that you could destroy the wreck afterwards.

I usually get them wedged in the doorway.

Quote Posted by Jah

So the boiler is the "corpse" the bots leave behind, and the other parts are "blood"?

Pretty much. When you pick up a boiler it's listed as a corpse.

Quote Posted by Jah

Heh, interesting. I don't really see any rationale for the disappearing parts, either, so it sounds like some kind of engine quirk.

I figure that it's the same as with crates and other objects. When they get destroyed, they leave behind some pieces that vanish after a few moments.

Quote Posted by Jah

I installed T2X the other day, but haven't done much with it yet. I played part of the first mission. I mainly wanted to see if it worked ok.

jtr7 on 28/7/2007 at 04:44

Making the bits and pieces disappear gives the game engine less to "think" about.

Rekrul on 29/7/2007 at 08:42

Quote Posted by jtr7

Making the bits and pieces disappear gives the game engine less to "think" about.

I know. I've read (but never seen it in person) that the Dark Engine has problems rendering everything when you get too many objects in the same place. It makes sense that it would delete debris after a little bit.

jtr7 on 29/7/2007 at 09:35

Yeah. It may be in Azal's Thief II Guide to the Strange & Unusual where he demonstrated disappearing machinery in Soulforge by filling the screen with bot corpses.

Mighty Hammer on 29/7/2007 at 19:33

Just a little something I want to note: The "masked servant" who is guarding brother Cavador isn't a servant. He's a normal mechanist with a Karrasface-shaped helmet. You can tell them apart from the armed Mechanist-Servant by the fact that the helmet goes down to their neck and they sound like normal mechanists.